Giant Pumpkin Weigh-In!

The 2025 Oak Leaf festival welcomes to its line-up of events - The Giant Pumpkin Weigh-In

Brought to you by Heavenly Hills Homestead

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This event will be held August 30th, 2025

Location to be determined

In the mean time we are please to provide you with the following Giant Pumpkin Resources:

INSTRUCTIONS FOR GROWING WEIGH-IN PUMPKINS

At the bottom of the seed (pointy end) where the root comes out, gently remove the seed coat using your fingernail or a small pick but be very careful not to break the seed germ inside. You are to just gently pull the tip apart and off. If you are not comfortable doing this, then you can get sandpaper and sand the sides of the seeds, again being very gentle because you’re only wanting to thin the seed coat down, not the see germ inside the coat. If you do get some of the seed germ inside it’s ok as long as it’s not that tip. (Without the tip it can’t grow roots.) Sand it from the tip of the seed to about ½ to ¾ of the length of the edge of the seed, watching for the seed coat to thin and see a crack.
Soak your seeds in water, plain water is fine, but I use humic/fulvic acid from Prevegenics, 1 teaspoon per quart. Soak the seeds for ½ hour to 1 hour d remove them from the water. Warm water is best, not hot or cold.
You can either start them in a baggie with a moist paper towel (not soaking wet) or soil, either way works, but I prefer the soil method unless they are hard to germinate seeds then I use paper towels. If you start with the paper towels and baggie, soak the towel, then squeeze the water out till it’s moist and not dripping. Fold it up to fit in the baggie and put your seeds on it and fold the towel again to cover the seeds and put in the baggie. *See below for using soil method.
The items below for the soil are not needed but will definitely help your young plant grow and grow fast. Once you have mixed your soil and ready put it in a 1-gallon container (milk jug or pot). I use Smart Pot fabric pots made for transplanting and they are awesome. You want to ensure you have enough pot to grow roots in without having to step the plant up to a bigger pot before you transplant outside. I start mine MID APRIL and transplant by MID MAY.
Make sure the soil is moist but not soaking wet, make sure they get ample light from a grow light or sunlight in a window. Before transplanting start taking them outside on warm days and put them out for 15-30 minutes for a few days, the 30 minutes to 1 hour, the 1 to 3 hours and last 6 hours. Each one for a few days every time you step up the time. Then transplant in a space of 150 feet square or bigger to up 1,000 square feet and get ready to grow the biggest and most amazing pumpkin you have ever seen.

PRO TIP

Before transplanting outside, have a soil test done and amend to its requirements. Make sure your soil is as loose as possible and as deep as possible. Make walking boards to step on so you don’t step on the soil compacting it.

*If you use soil, I mix mine using Fox Farm Happy Frog Mix, Wakefield Biochar and Vermiculite. I will add lactobacillus from XTREME Gardening (Versity or Prevegenics lactobacillus whichever you like, then I add XTREME Gardening Azos and Mykos beneficial bacteria and fungi that helps tremendously in growth. These aren’t needed but will definitely help your young plant grow and grow fast.

Vendor Resources and Discound Codes

Starting Giant Pumpkins YouTube playlist

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzkSlLscIPplqicD2l3NtlOm-P1dkb3rB

Prevegenics

25% discount code: GIANT

Certified Prevegenics

https:// certifiedprevegenics.com/

#prevegenics

Epic Gardening

5% discount code: HHH

https://shop.epicgardening.com/

#epicgardening